Our data collection efforts yielded more than 550 pages of documents. On
average, there were at least 10 documents for each business crisis. The archival
data collected represents public accounts of the crisis provided by organizational sources and industry experts. In general, these accounts were given in
written or oral form as a response to the media or as a communication vehicle
to organizational stakeholders. We acknowledge that crisis accounts released to
Wooten, James / CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES 9
Company
Comair
Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter
Abercrombie &
Fitch
Wal-Mart
Initial Year
2001
2001
2004
2003
Specific Crisis
Delta’s Comair pilots went on strike for 89 days
during the spring of 2001 resulting in a decline
in the number of planes operating and flights
offered. In addition, pilot layoffs occurred. It
was estimated that Comair’s cost per day
during the strike ranged from US$2.5 million
to US$4 million
Sex discrimination at Morgan Stanley was
publicized when it fired an executive who
consequently sued the firms for its
discriminatory practices
A class-action discrimination lawsuit was filed for
retailer Abercrombie & Fitch in 2004.The
retailer was found guilty of using race as a
factor when hiring floor workers in the stores
and in their advertising campaigns
In 2003,Wal-Mart was sued for a pattern of sex
discrimination behavior across its stores and
for the use of race as a factor when
promoting and hiring workers
TABLE 1: (continued)
the public have inherent biases because of content norms and the various influences on what gets reported. Despite these biases, these accounts represent
formal documentation of how an organization defines a crisis and a public portrayal of actions for resolving a crisis (Forster, 1994). In addition, it should be
noted that the accuracy of media-based, public accounts is important to organizations as this generally represents the primary source of communication from
a company to its external stakeholders